Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies,

Online ISSN 2278-8808, SJIF 2018 = 6.371, www.srjis.com

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL, MAY-JUNE, 2018, VOL- 5/45

SCHEDULED TRIBES EDUCATION IN INDIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Azad Ahmad Andrabi1, Ph. D. & Nayyar Jabeen2, Ph. D.

1
School of Education, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Email: azadandrabi@gmail.com
2
School of Education, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Email: drnayyarjabeen2016@gmail.com

Education system is the backbone of a nation and it should cater the needs of all the citizens without
any discrimination. India is pluralistic country which accommodates persons from different cultures,
backgrounds and sections. Scheduled tribe is one of the most marginalised groups in India that is
backward in all aspects. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the educational level of scheduled tribe
population and to highlight the issues and challenges regarding the same.
Keywords: scheduled tribe, marginalised, educational level.

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Introduction
The relationship between education and human being this is very close man has achieved
success in almost every field and made his life comfortable. But this development or
achievement has been gained at the cost of his knowledge and skills which has been acquired
through education, As it is regarded as the most powerful instrument for emancipation and
empowerment of human beings (Mishra – 2001). Indeed, education is a process of human
enlightenment and empowerment for the betterment and quality of life. It not only enhances
mans knowledge, skills, competencies, potential, values and attitudes but also transform his
belief and thoughts. At the same time, it is assumed as the training of the human soul in the
pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue, (Dongaonkar 2004).
The present millennium is witnessing phenomenal global changes and no nation can
isolate itself from the process. In the process of global changes and development India has
achieved success in various fields i.e., agriculture, industrialisation, modernisation,
urbanisation, trade and commerce, transport, communication, science and technology,
production and so on. With the result of these phenomenal changes education are expanding
at every corner in India, as it is assumed as the human resource development (HRD) in the
country. However, after independence, the country has become more conscious to educate

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her people. Therefore, it has introduced various educational schemes and programmes to
attain higher level of education and also to achieve socio-economic as well as overall
development. But this educational expansion or change has not taken place for everyone and
all sections of society. The scheduled Tribes and unprivileged people are still lagging behind
in all stages of education. Despite constant efforts both by Central and State governments to
spread the education of scheduled tribes and other weaker sections, the level of education
among scheduled Tribes is very low in comparison to general population.
Review of Related Literature
Ample amount of literature is available on the condition of tribal education in India. Some of
the studies relevant to the paper Sujatha (1994) in a study on tribes of Andhra Pradesh
contends that the perspective adopted for educational development of tribal communities fails
to adequately address the specific disadvantages characterizing the tribal population and
reported that one of the major constraints of tribal education at the planning level is the
adoption of a dual system of administration. Rani (2000) observed that due to the language
barrier the tribal children are unable to establish communication link with the teacher and
thus leading to the termination of their education in some point or the other. Sujatha (2008)
revealed that government policy focused on education as the main avenue by which to
integrate them into mainstream society. Jha & Jhingran (2002) have strongly advocated the
use of the mother tongue or home language as medium of instruction in early stages of
education. This assumes larger importance in the context of education of scheduled tribe
children because their mother tongue is often quite distinct from the major languages in the
state or regional languages and it is needed to have a local tutor from the same tribal area.
The Praitichi Committee Report (2002) identifies cost of schooling, lack of motivation of
teachers, lack of inspection, and the increasing dependence on private tutoring to be the main
hurdles in the path of education for tribal children. Gautam, (2004) in his article found that
due to wrong medium of instruction, the appointment of non-tribal teachers in tribal areas and
communication gap between the teachers and tribal children are the causes of high dropout
rates in tribal schools. Maharatna (2009) stressed on how a more voluntary and mutual
interaction between tribes and mainstream society can be developed. Lal (2005) found that
among all school dropouts, Adivasis and Dalits form the biggest group. Further, the largest
group amongst them is girls. Education, thus for the marginalized sections of the society
needs to become the solution and an inclusive development policy for their economic and
social up-liftment. Nair (2007) has given stress on distance education in tribal areas

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specifically to provide access to the group of children in remote areas. Sedwal and Kamat
(2008) focused on issues related to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – groups which
are recognised for affirmative action within the Constitution of India. Abdulraheem (2011)
explained that education as an important parameter for any inclusive growth in an economy
and the policies have to focus on inclusive rather than divisive growth strategies. Rami’s
(2012) paper discusses the status of primary education in the tribal district of Dang in
Gujarat. In the district, there are about 412 primary schools; out of which 378 primary
schools are run by the district panchayat. The paper concludes that most of the schools have
buildings, but they fail to attract the girl students owing to lack of other essential amenities
like drinking water as well as separate toilets for boys and girls. Another problem that makes
tribal students leave schools is the medium of instruction which is quite different from their
own vernacular dialect. Brahmanandam and Babu (2016) in their evaluative study revealed
that despite sincere efforts the performance of the tribes in education is much lower than the
Scheduled Castes. Further they reported that the policy makers paid little attention to
culturally linked education that led to drop outs and directly impacted overall educational
status of scheduled tribes. Dar and Najar (2017) studied the special features of the
educational system in the tribal areas of khanshaib, Jammu & Kashmir, India having main
tribes of the areas are sedentarized and nomadic Gujjar and Bakkarwal. The study revealed
that under the flagship Programme of Sarva Shiksha Abiyan (SSA) government has been
partially able to uplift the educational infrastructure however the teacher student
communication has been improved in the last few years by recruiting local tribal and non-
tribal teachers Recently Punnaiah (2018) in his paper attempted to examine government
policies for tribal education, tribal populations and literacy rates. He also highlighted the
major issues and challenges of tribal education in the state of Telangana
Assessment of Enrolment:
The educational development of scheduled Tribes has been encouraged date back to
the prior period to independence, yet it has not yielded satisfactory result. Literature and
many reports available reveal that in spite of all the constitutional provisions and efforts put
in the successive five-year planning period; their education level is very low. It seems that
people belonging to scheduled tribes still have to go a long way to come up to the general
level in the field of education. These can be compared through number of enrolments at
various stages of education.

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According to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Annual
Report, 20014 – 15, total number of scheduled Tribes students enrolled from class I to XII is
25,454 thousand which is far behind the number of enrolled students from general category
i.e. 259468 thousand. India has total tribal population of 10.43 crores (Table-1) which is 8.6
per cent (Table-2) of total population of India as per 2011 census.
Table-1 Scheduled Tribe population and decadal change by residence in 2011
Scheduled Tribe population2011 Decadal change2001-2011
Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban
104,281,034 93,819,162 10,461,872 23.7 21.3 49.7
Source - Census of India, 2011
Table-2 Percentage of Scheduled Tribes to total population in India: 2001-2011
Percentage of Scheduled Tribe 2001 Percentage of Scheduled Tribe 2011
Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban
8.2 10.4 2.4 8.6 11.3 2.8
Source - Census of India, 2011
Enrolment in primary and middle levels of education is the foundation that determines
the future educational development. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse the number of
scheduled tribes students enrolled at various levels of education and can be compared with
non-scheduled tribe population. The enrolment of scheduled tribe and general population
students in various courses from primary to senior secondary stages are given in table 3.
Table 3: Level-wise Enrolment in School 2014-15
(In thousands)
Stages General Scheduled Tribes

Boys Girls Total Boys girls Total

Primary (I-V) 67609 62892 130501 7309 6824 14133

Upper Primary(VI-VIII) 34501 32664 67165 3371 3181 6552

Secondary
(IX-X) 20121 18180 38301 1678 1574 3252
Senior Secondary
(X-XII) 12440 11061 23501 802 715 1517
Source:Annual Report, MHRD, 2016.
The above table reveals that there is a variation in the enrolment of general and
scheduled tribe students at different stages. Up to primary and upper primary stages,
enrolment ratio is very high but after that, it declines rapidly in both categories. This is
precisely because of high dropout rate at this level. Similarly, there is a wide disparity in the

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level of education between boys and girls in general and scheduled tribe students. The
enrolment of girl students is much lower than that of boys in both cases that is scheduled tribe
as well as general students. This is because of gender biasness and social discrimination
against girl child. Further, it also illustrates that there has been substantial increase in the
number of students belonging to scheduled tribe at all stages of education, particularly in the
primary level.
Further, in order to understand the progress of education level of scheduled tribe
population, an evaluation can be made in the percentage differences in literacy trends in
different decades (table 4).
Table- 4 Literacy Trends of Scheduled Tribes in India from 1961 to 2011( In Percent)
Year Male Female Total
1961 13.83 3.16 8.54
1971 17.63 4.85 11.39
1981 24.52 8.05 16.35
1991 40.65 18.19 29.60
2001 59.17 34.76 47.10
2011 71.70 54.40 63.10
Source: National Commission for SCs & STs, Fifth Report & Census, 2011
The literacy rates of scheduled tribes in India from 1961 to 2011 are shown in table – 4. The
percentage of literacy among tribes was only 8.54 per cent in 1961 which has increased to
63.1 per cent in 2011. Gender analysis also reveals a substantial increase in the literacy rates
of tribal population through the six decades. The female literacy increases from mere 3.16 per
cent in 1961 to 54.4 in 2011. However male literacy is much better than the females it
increases from 13.83 in 1961 to 71.70 per cent in 2011. The data urges that there is a need to
make more efforts for improving the literacy rate of female tribal population. The literacy
trend over the six decades is presented graphically in figure 1.

Fig.1: Literacy trend of ST population from 1961to 2011

80
70
Percentage of Literacy

60
50
Male
40
30 female
20 Total
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6

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 Dr. Azad Ahmad Andrabi & Dr. Nayyar Jabeen
10743
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State wise distribution patterns
Many literatures and several studies reveal that education distribution of scheduled
tribes in India is not uniform in all states. There is unequal distribution and it varies from
state to state as well as region to region. The imbalances exist not only amongst states but
also between gender and communities. Indeed, the State wise spatial distribution of scheduled
tribe education presents original disparity and variation. There is a wide gap between
developed and backward states as well as smaller and larger states/UTs. The State wise
spatial distribution of total enrolment of scheduled Tribes students at various levels of
education is presented in table 5.
Table 5: State-wise Enrolment by Stages of School Education of ST Students – Pre-
Primary, Primary, Upper-Primary-2010-11.
Upper Primary /
Primary / Jr. Basic Middle /Sr. Basic
Pre-Primary
S. (Classes 1-V) (Classes VI-VIII)
N State/UT
o Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total
1 Andhra
13039 9009 22048 396410 373650 770060 152900 131787 284687
Pradesh
2 Arunachal
22554 20227 42781 88778 84121 172899 30383 29362 59745
Pradesh
3 Assam 79777 77174 156951 208254 208186 416440 106867 103504 210371
4 Bihar 0 0 0 107790 73483 181273 25907 18463 44370
5 Chhattisgarh 11824 10489 22313 515217 480322 995539 209672 185570 395242
6 Goa 0 0 0 4876 4442 9318 3659 3233 6892
7 Gujarat 0 0 0 634761 590277 1225038 187876 167521 355397
8 Haryana 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 Himachal
0 0 0 17946 17016 34962 12776 11749 24525
Pradesh
10 Jammu &
3867 3250 7117 69940 59897 129837 29361 23593 52954
Kashmir
11 Jharkhand 14450 10913 25363 776465 741070 1517535 243861 234147 478008
12 Karnataka 0 0 0 226014 212191 438205 119299 108162 227461
13 Kerala 0 0 0 22408 20447 42855 13335 12381 25716
14 Madhya 141467 138010
0 0 0 2794779 467462 479138 946600
Pradesh 3 6
15 Maharashtra 13097 26941 133503
699875 635160 307643 260591 568234
1 2 5
16 Manipur 26212 24952 51164 74778 62123 136901 21821 19885 41706
17 Meghalaya 13487 27207
223494 223553 447047 64465 73058 137523
8 9
18 Mizoram 19530 18579 38109 77608 71228 148836 33341 30896 64237
19 Nagaland 57032 51783 108815 107526 99190 206716 43593 40310 83903
20 Orissa 0 0 0 684634 654098 1338732 210031 184846 394877
21 Punjab 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
22 Rajasthan 28834 18768 47602 725213 618299 1343512 265026 189458 454484
23 Sikkim 0 0 0 14915 15207 30122 5298 6713 12011
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24 Tamil Nadu 10781 8822 19603 59409 54523 113932 27748 25721 53469
25 Tripura 1030 877 1907 86356 81761 168117 39303 34925 74228
26 Uttar
0 0 0 79876 74630 154506 26719 21696 48415
Pradesh
27 Uttarakhand 0 0 0 26183 23128 49311 11203 11129 22332
28 West Bengal 0 0 0 309164 299240 608404 165412 166229 331641
29 A&N
61 58 119 1222 1148 2370 889 756 1645
Islands
30 Chandigarh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
31 D&N Haveli 0 0 0 13516 12765 26281 7019 5892 12911
32 Daman &
31 36 67 954 860 1814 570 464 1034
Diu
33 Delhi 231 231 462 3361 2775 6136 1747 1417 3164
34 Lakshadwee
476 523 999 3001 2846 5847 1845 2122 3967
p
35 Puducherry 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
INDIA 56537 52154 108691 767461 717774 1485235 283703 258471 542174
1 0 1 7 2 9 1 8 9
Source: Selected Educational Statistics, MHRD, 2010-11

Table 5 provides a varied picture and scenario with respect to State wise dispersion pattern
and depicts the following points:
 There is unequal distribution of education level of scheduled tribe students among the
states/UTs in terms of total numbers, sex as well as at stages. However, variations and
disparities exist everywhere.
 States of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Andaman and Nicobar Island,
Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu have very low or more
regional ratio of scheduled tribe enrolment. It is precisely because these states/UTs
are predominantly inhabited by tribal population.
 Enrolment of scheduled Tribes students are higher in those states/UTs via scheduled
tribe population is proportionately higher. For example, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Delhi etc.
Therefore, the observations of the above analysis justify that the level of education of
scheduled Tribes is very low and present a vulnerable scene in the country. At the same
time, it raises many questions. Even after 57 years of independence, these people are
struggling to achieve higher level of education. The Constitution of India promises free
and compulsory education to this community and more than 57 years have passed, yet
majority of the scheduled tribe population is illiterate. What does it indicate? A
constitutional fraud? This has serious implications for a country like India. Why have the
promises not been kept? Was there any shortage of resources or management problems?

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 Dr. Azad Ahmad Andrabi & Dr. Nayyar Jabeen
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This is very alarming and needs immediate intervention. No doubt the literacy trend has
improved over the last six decades, but still it is far behind and the low education level of
these people is not only hampering the socio-economic development but also raising
several issues and challenges. These challenges can be discussed as:
 it is creating manifold socio-economic disorder in the society;
 lower education level is deteriorating the condition of all well-beings and other
sections seriously;
 socio-economic backwardness, unemployment, mass migration and many more
problems are attributed due to low education level among these people and in
general;
 lower education level is accentuating discriminations and deprivation among these
peoples;
 it is not only generating problems and miseries in the country but effecting society
at all levels and scales; and
 if these evolving trends continue, it will accelerate the number of illiterates in the
country.
Conclusion
Education is an important indicator of socio-economic development and also a prominent
component of population studies. Equally, it is considered as an essential trait of civilisation
and overall development of human beings. Emancipation and empowerment of people can be
achieved only through education. Indeed, the country’s advancement and development
largely depends upon the level of education as it provides enlightenment, power, privilege,
protection and prestige to the people.
The evaluation of education level for the scheduled tribes in India reflects pathetic
scenes. Their level of education is fairly very low. Despite the constitutional provision and
persistent efforts to improve the levels of education since Independence, there exhibit high
degree of dispersion and disparities. In fact, is a matter of serious concern and worrisome for
the whole nation as it affects each and every individual of the society. It is imperative that
measures proposed for the country’s educational level should be in harmony of scheduled
tribes and unprivileged people as we all know that ignorance is disastrous and leads to
irrationality. Therefore, following measures can be taken effectively:
 There is a need of major shift of attention to make education a priority sector in
respect scheduled tribe people.
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 Education development among scheduled tribes in India urgently requires a shift
in focus to bring out intensive educational programs to achieve higher level of
education.
 There is in need of quick implementation of strong and effective education
policies in the country. For this, a monitoring body should be constituted under
the supervision of high cabinet level and action should be taken to the persons and
officers who show any negligence.
 Higher proportion of the country’s budget needs to be spent to do scheduled tribes
related education programs.
 As education among scheduled tribes suffers due to acute poverty, unemployment
and lack of awareness, however, there is a need of mass campaign and creating
awareness, providing full financial support and scholarships, guidance and
counselling to parents.
 A well thought out and integrated education policy initiative with main thrust on
primary and vocational education is the need of the hour, before disparities and
inequality of education get further enmeshed in quagmire.
 Lastly, it is also essential to provide a congenial atmosphere in the country. For
this, government and people’s participation is equally essential. The whole study
demonstrates every complex scenario and suggests that there is a need of change
of people’s mind and attitude and put collective efforts to improve education level
of scheduled tribes in the country. The realisation of dream can come true if the
government takes strong and effective steps in the implementation of countries
education policies with the assumption that education is the essence of human
beings and the best contraceptive to socio-economic development.
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